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MEDUSA
' M.E.D.U.S.A' is an ancient, Old Tech super-weapon. It served as a major plot device in the first book. Design M.E.D.U.S.A, which stands for "Military Energy Department United States of America", is a ground-based, quantum energy weapon, controlled by an artificially-intelligent computer system. It is stated in Mortal Engines as taking up the whole of the inside of St Paul's Cathedral, where the Guild of Engineers had rebuilt it using an ancient blueprint and a surviving, though degraded, computer "brain". It is described as having a huge, metallic hood shaped like a cobra's hood. It fires a beam of energy (either sourced from outside the real universe, or the city's generators), resembling a "cat-o-nine-tails" or a whip, at targets up to two hundred miles away. In the film, it is shown to fire a bundle of lightning-like energy, which then concentrates into a single beam that discharges smaller bolts of energy into the ground during transmission, striking its target almost instantly. Upon impact, the weapon either tears open a hole in the very fabric of reality, creating an interdimensional gateway, or creates a singularity. In any case, the effect pulls anything within range into it, before collapsing the dimensional hole or singularity, causing a shockwave of energy to pulse outward from the point of impact, followed by a massive explosion on par with a small nuclear warhead. It is also revealed, in an ancient recording of the Sixty Minute War, to have once been far more devastating than it is when used by London thousands of years after the war, having once been capable of wiping out entire cities, and potentially more, in a single blast. The most likely cause of this is the fact that London possesses a potentially far weaker power source for the weapon than the Ancients did, or that the degraded systems are less effective than they once were. This may also be evidenced by the energy beam discharging lethal bolts of lightning into the ground while travelling, and into the interior of St. Paul's, rather than staying on course towards its target. The target coordinates are input via a control panel at the base of the firing mechanism, using codes from an ancient, poorly-understood US-military document recovered from a military complex in the Dead Continent (the former United States of America). It seems to also possess a terrain scanner as part of its targeting system, as it can accurately create an image of the target's structure and position, to the degree that any damage caused after firing is accurately represented on the display screen mere moments after the explosion. It is also revealed in the film that M.E.D.U.S.A is an acronym of what appears to be the name of a U.S military governing body, that controlled the use of these weapons before and during the Sixty Minute War. History M.E.D.U.S.A was developed by and used by the ancient United States of America during the Sixty Minute War, along with a plethora of other nightmarish weapons of mass destruction. Thousands of years after the War, London secretly made archaeological expeditions to the Dead Continent (the former United States of America) and gathered the plans and pieces of M.E.D.U.S.A from an ancient, subterranean US military complex and re-assembled it inside St Paul's Cathedral. In order to obtain the ancient, artificially intelligent computer control system, a fabulously complex piece of technology even by the Ancients' standards, Thaddeus Valentine killed Hester's parents and scarred her face for life. Katherine Valentine spends most of the first part of Mortal Engines trying to figure out what M.E.D.U.S.A is. Then, when London is being chased by the city Panzerstadt-Bayreuth, and threatened with destruction, the roof of St Paul's Cathedral opens up like a flower. The cold metal hood of M.E.D.U.S.A emerged from within and, pulsing with strange, otherworldly energies that once brought humanity to the brink of extinction, fired a beam of destructive power at the pursuing traction city, and destroyed the predator in the blink of an eye, reducing it to a smoking pile of molten slag, its people, history and collection of ancient knowledge, wiped out in an instant. Katherine was horrified, but the rest of London was happy that they avoided being destroyed. London, guided by Magnus Chrome, then headed towards Batmunkh Gompa with plans to destroy the Shield-Wall and make Central Asia their new hunting ground. Magnus Crome planned to use M.E.D.U.S.A to become the greatest traction city in the world; if a city didn't deliberately drive into London's mouth then they would unleash M.E.D.U.S.A on it and salvage its remains. His plan would have it so that when all the Traction Cities were gone, they would turn the entire Earth into a mobile planet that consumed other planets for resources. M.E.D.U.S.A was accidentally destroyed by Katherine Valentine who was mortally wounded while attempting to sabotage it. With incorrect targeting data, the machine turned its power upon itself and the city beneath it. This prevented the weapon from firing at Batmunkh Gompa, but caused it to overload, the terrible energy, then completely out of control, obliterating most of London and its people, reducing the city to a graveyard of molten scrap. In the wake of London's demise, remnants of the weapon's energy remained in the ruins of the traction city, manifesting as bizarre, floating bundles of power known as Sprites, as revealed in A Darkling Plain. In the film adaptation, M.E.D.U.S.A is shut down by Hester Shaw, using an ancient crash-drive with the letters "U.S.A" inscribed upon it, entering a code which turns the machine off and causes the weapon to overload. However, this does not destroy London as in the book, but merely shuts the weapon down, harmlessly. Despite this, London's Gut and engines are destroyed in the ongoing battle, rendering the city immobile and nonfunctional outside the Shield Wall regardless. Gallery Medusa 4.png|The effects of the weapon, shown in use during the Sixty Minute War, destroying an ancient city in mere moments. Medusa 3.png|The user interface's display screen, accurately presenting the user with targeting data. Medusa.png|The computer core of the weapon, revealing the meaning of the name "M.E.D.U.S.A" Medusa 2.png|The hood of the weapon, emerging from St. Paul's. Category:Old Tech Category:The Sixty Minute War Category:Sixty Minute War Category:Superweapons